Rain Rain Go Away

Now, you would think that living in Squamish I would be used to rain. After all, we get rain and lots of it during the winter, but if you remember yesterday's post it was upper 70's and dry as a bone. Yeah....today? Not so much! It was raining when we got up, raining when we left, raining while we drove, and raining when we arrived. Sooooooooo, yeah. If you notice raindrops on the lens in some of these  pictures I make no excuses. It was beyond damp and into submersible territory.

As we pulled out of the hotel parking lot, sodden and slightly grumpy we noticed this fellow wishing us a hearty "Welcome to Grants Pass". Thanks, we're leaving!

This city like others we have seen on our travels is big on wall art. This is a scene from the early days.

There is a bridge crossing the Rogue River here and we will head west through the steady driving rain toward the coast. The bridge is festooned with hanging baskets. Very distinctive and pretty.

As we crossed in to California, we came to an Agricultural Inspection Station. Wonder of wonders. The last time I saw one of these I was probably 12 years old, so 47 years ago. I told the attendant "no fruit, no plants and no firewood", as though the mantra came swimming up from the dark mists of memory, and that she would have a place in my blog today.

Welcome to Del Norte County. Thank you! We continued on, through the heavy precipitation over hill, over dale and down toward the coast.

We arrived at Crescent City, and I drove through town showing ScooterChick the demarcation line. We turned west at 9th and "I" and I showed her the ocean as we drove towards 8th. explaining that the tsunami of 1964 had cleaned everything off the map between the shore and 8th. Street. Here is a mural on the side off an industrial facility. It is strange to see the window in the center of the vista.

I don't believe this whale was cast up in the aforementioned tsunami. It is just an advert for whale watching tours, but it is about 40 feet long and 15 feet up in the sky.

The sea has an attitude today. The breakers were enthusiastic, and the rain kept everyone including us off the beach.

As we continued south we came to the bridge over the Klamath River. I remember these bears were off to the side of the bridge as they were constructing the new bridge. I am not ashamed to say that there is a picture out there somewhere with me riding one of these bears about 13 years ago.

We took a detour off 101 to drive down the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway through Prairie Creek State Park. I am yet again amazed, and was laughing out loud at ScooterChick's exclamations of shock, awe and surprise at the size of the redwoods trees as we drove through. I was enthused enough to get get out of the car to document the amazement pictorially.

Seriously, these things are "prehistoric" huge. I am in awe of creation and I feel refreshingly puny whenever I am in the redwoods. They really beggar description.

The tops of the trees are lost in the clouds somewhere. Actually they are not that tall but beyond the reach of this scribe's lens.

I am in disbelief, and I have the pictures to prove it!

We stopped at the Visitor Center. It was constructed by the CCC in the 1930's of redwood and shows very little wear since.

Here is Scooterchick with a little friend. This one must have been bothering campers, or he had an unfortunate encounter with a loaded logging truck. He can't be over two years old.

There is a resident herd of Roosevelt Elk here. They were grazing on the meadow unconcernedly as we stopped to get their picture.

Where is the bull you ask? He's chilling in the background as if to say, "yeah it's wet and I can't be bothered to stand up for your amusement. You'll just have to take my glamor shot from there."

It was time for lunch and I needed soup. Fortunately they had a lovely homemade Potato Soup ready. I realize that there are two separate schools of thought with regard to cracker consumption. In the soup, or on the side. You can tell which side of this debate I come down on.

Scooterchick is looking at the rain, and pondering her lunch selection. She finally decided on a Grilled Garlic Mushroom Chicken sandwich with Fries.

I had a Grilled Tuna Melt with Potato Salad. It was so good it started to disappear before I could even take a picture. Patsy tried a bite and we ended up splitting the sandwiches so we each got some of both.

After fueling up we got to our hotel, and settled in to relax, blog and do laundry. We stopped on the way in to visit an elderly friend, and I found out she had gone to glory recently. I expect to see her when the time is right, and I look forward to seeing her then. She was 93 this year. My condolences go to her family.

See you later, thanks for riding along.